Miami Seahawks
Encyclopedia
The Miami Seahawks were a professional American football
team based in Miami
, Florida
. They played in the All-America Football Conference
for one season, 1946, before folding. They are notable as the first major league
sports franchise in Miami and the state of Florida's first professional football team.
The Seahawks were a charter franchise in the All-America Football Conference, a league that formed in 1946 and competed with the National Football League
until folding in 1949. They were coached initially by Jack Meagher
and then by Hamp Pool
. The team faced a difficult schedule filled with many early road games
, and finished the fourteen-game regular season with only three wins. The franchise, which by that time had accrued $350,000 in debt, was confiscated by the AAFC after the end of the season, and its assets were purchased by a group of entrepreneurs who reorganized it as the original incarnation of the Baltimore Colts. Florida would not have another major league-level football team until the American Football League
added the Miami Dolphins
in 1966.
teams to be established. They were formed to replace an aborted Baltimore
franchise, which was to have been owned by retired boxer George Tunney but was unable to secure a stadium deal. Miami
football boosters seized on the opportunity to bring a professional team to their city, and a franchise was awarded to owner Harvey Hester. The Seahawks thus became the first major league sports team to be based in Miami. Home games were played at the Miami Orange Bowl
.
The Seahawks stood out from the other AAFC franchises in a several ways. First, they were based in a substantially smaller market, one that had about half the population of other metropolitan areas with professional football teams. The other cities that received AAFC teams were among the 15 largest in the United States, while Miami, though growing quickly, was only 42nd largest in the 1940s. Additionally, owner Harvey Hester was substantially less wealthy than the other team owners, and was the only one among them who was not a millionaire. Cleveland Browns
coach Paul Brown
remarked that Hester seemed out of his league around the other owners, to the point that he was uncomfortable even playing poker
among them.
The Seahawks hired Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks coach Jack Meagher
as head coach. Their schedule was quite difficult from the beginning. Miami opened with three straight road games, had a single home game, and then played another four road games. By the time of their first home game they had a record of 0-3-0, leading local papers to describe them as "woefully inept". Meagher quit abruptly on October 22, after the sixth game, having led his team to just one win. Hamp Pool
, a former captain of the 1940 and 1941 Chicago Bears
NFL championship teams, then took over as head coach. After a 1-7-0 start, the team returned home to host their final six games, a difficult sell to the general public. While an average 28,000 people came to the Seahawks first two home games, fans quickly lost interest in the flagging team, and fewer than around 9000 came to each of the last three games. Brooklyn, Cleveland, and San Francisco had completed their 14-game regular seasons before the Seahawks hosted their final two home games. The team also played all of its November games on Monday night, the first time in major professional football that such a move had ever been attempted more than once in a year. This would later prove to be an inspiration for Monday Night Football
, which would not debut for another 24 years.
At the end of the season the team was up to $350,000 in debt, including $80,000 in travel and payroll costs, and Hester could not afford to repay it. Football boosters in Miami attempted to buy the team, though they were unwilling to square the substantial debt Hester had accumulated, and decided to wait a year to make the bid. Before this could happen, however, Hester declared bankruptcy and league commissioner Jim Crowley
expropriated the team. Before the Miami boosters could make an offer the league approved a bid by Washington, D.C.
attorney Robert D. Rodenburg and four other businessmen. The group reformed the team in Baltimore
and renamed it, and the original incarnation of the Baltimore Colts was born.
Miami was without a professional football team until the 1960s. Ralph Wilson briefly considered putting his American Football League
(AFL) franchise in Miami, but city officials turned him down. Then in 1965 the AFL awarded an expansion team
to lawyer Joe Robbie and actor Danny Thomas
, and the Miami Dolphins
were established.
|-
| colspan="6" align="center" | Miami Seahawks
|-
| 1946
|| 3 || 11 || 0 || 4th AAFC East || --
|}
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
team based in Miami
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. They played in the All-America Football Conference
All-America Football Conference
The All-America Football Conference was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League from 1946 to 1949. One of the NFL's most formidable challengers, the AAFC attracted many of the nation's best players, and introduced many lasting innovations...
for one season, 1946, before folding. They are notable as the first major league
Major League
See Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada.Major League may also refer to:-Sport:* Major League Baseball, the highest level of play in professional baseball in North America* Major League Cricket...
sports franchise in Miami and the state of Florida's first professional football team.
The Seahawks were a charter franchise in the All-America Football Conference, a league that formed in 1946 and competed with the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
until folding in 1949. They were coached initially by Jack Meagher
Jack Meagher
-External links:...
and then by Hamp Pool
Hamp Pool
Hampton John "Hamp" Pool was a football player, coach and scout who was part of two National Football League championship teams during his playing career and served as head coach for three professional teams....
. The team faced a difficult schedule filled with many early road games
Road Games
Road Games is an EP by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 1983 through Warner Bros. Records on vinyl only; a CD edition was reissued through Gnarly Geezer Records in 2001, although to this day Holdsworth claims to have received no royalties from either release...
, and finished the fourteen-game regular season with only three wins. The franchise, which by that time had accrued $350,000 in debt, was confiscated by the AAFC after the end of the season, and its assets were purchased by a group of entrepreneurs who reorganized it as the original incarnation of the Baltimore Colts. Florida would not have another major league-level football team until the American Football League
American Football League
The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
added the Miami Dolphins
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
in 1966.
History
The Miami Seahawks were the last of the original All-America Football ConferenceAll-America Football Conference
The All-America Football Conference was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League from 1946 to 1949. One of the NFL's most formidable challengers, the AAFC attracted many of the nation's best players, and introduced many lasting innovations...
teams to be established. They were formed to replace an aborted Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
franchise, which was to have been owned by retired boxer George Tunney but was unable to secure a stadium deal. Miami
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
football boosters seized on the opportunity to bring a professional team to their city, and a franchise was awarded to owner Harvey Hester. The Seahawks thus became the first major league sports team to be based in Miami. Home games were played at the Miami Orange Bowl
Miami Orange Bowl
The Orange Bowl, formerly Burdine Stadium, was an outdoor athletic stadium in Miami, Florida, west of downtown in Little Havana. Considered a landmark, it was the home stadium for the Miami Hurricanes college football team...
.
The Seahawks stood out from the other AAFC franchises in a several ways. First, they were based in a substantially smaller market, one that had about half the population of other metropolitan areas with professional football teams. The other cities that received AAFC teams were among the 15 largest in the United States, while Miami, though growing quickly, was only 42nd largest in the 1940s. Additionally, owner Harvey Hester was substantially less wealthy than the other team owners, and was the only one among them who was not a millionaire. Cleveland Browns
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
coach Paul Brown
Paul Brown
Paul Eugene Brown was a coach in American football and a major figure in the development of the National Football League...
remarked that Hester seemed out of his league around the other owners, to the point that he was uncomfortable even playing poker
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
among them.
The Seahawks hired Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks coach Jack Meagher
Jack Meagher
-External links:...
as head coach. Their schedule was quite difficult from the beginning. Miami opened with three straight road games, had a single home game, and then played another four road games. By the time of their first home game they had a record of 0-3-0, leading local papers to describe them as "woefully inept". Meagher quit abruptly on October 22, after the sixth game, having led his team to just one win. Hamp Pool
Hamp Pool
Hampton John "Hamp" Pool was a football player, coach and scout who was part of two National Football League championship teams during his playing career and served as head coach for three professional teams....
, a former captain of the 1940 and 1941 Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
NFL championship teams, then took over as head coach. After a 1-7-0 start, the team returned home to host their final six games, a difficult sell to the general public. While an average 28,000 people came to the Seahawks first two home games, fans quickly lost interest in the flagging team, and fewer than around 9000 came to each of the last three games. Brooklyn, Cleveland, and San Francisco had completed their 14-game regular seasons before the Seahawks hosted their final two home games. The team also played all of its November games on Monday night, the first time in major professional football that such a move had ever been attempted more than once in a year. This would later prove to be an inspiration for Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
, which would not debut for another 24 years.
At the end of the season the team was up to $350,000 in debt, including $80,000 in travel and payroll costs, and Hester could not afford to repay it. Football boosters in Miami attempted to buy the team, though they were unwilling to square the substantial debt Hester had accumulated, and decided to wait a year to make the bid. Before this could happen, however, Hester declared bankruptcy and league commissioner Jim Crowley
Jim Crowley
James Harold "Jim" Crowley was an American football player and coach. He gained fame as one-fourth of the University of Notre Dame's legendary "Four Horsemen" backfield where he played halfback from 1922 to 1924. After a brief career as a professional football player, Crowley turned to coaching...
expropriated the team. Before the Miami boosters could make an offer the league approved a bid by Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
attorney Robert D. Rodenburg and four other businessmen. The group reformed the team in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
and renamed it, and the original incarnation of the Baltimore Colts was born.
Miami was without a professional football team until the 1960s. Ralph Wilson briefly considered putting his American Football League
American Football League
The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
(AFL) franchise in Miami, but city officials turned him down. Then in 1965 the AFL awarded an expansion team
Expansion team
An expansion team is a brand new team in a sports league. The term is most commonly used in reference to the North American major professional sports leagues, but is applied to sports leagues worldwide that use a closed franchise system of league membership. The term comes from the expansion of the...
to lawyer Joe Robbie and actor Danny Thomas
Danny Thomas
Danny Thomas was an American nightclub comedian and television and film actor, best known for starring in the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy . He was also the founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...
, and the Miami Dolphins
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
were established.
Miami Seahawks - 1946 schedule and results
- Fri. Sep. 6th --- Miami 0 at Cleveland Browns 44
- Sun. Sep. 15th --- Miami 14 at San Francisco 49ers 21
- Fri. Sep. 20th --- Miami 14 at Los Angeles Dons 30
- Tue. Oct. 8th --- San Francisco 49ers 34 at Miami 7
- Fri. Oct. 11th --- Miami 17 at Buffalo Bisons 14
- Fri. Oct. 18th --- Miami 7 at Chicago Rockets 28
- Fri. Oct. 25th --- Miami 7 at Brooklyn Dodgers 30
- Sun. Nov. 3rd --- Miami 21 at New York Yankees 24
- Mon. Nov. 11th --- Chicago Rockets 20 at Miami 7
- Mon. Nov. 18th --- Buffalo Bisons 14 at Miami 21
- Mon. Nov. 25th --- Los Angeles Dons 34 at Miami 21
- Tue. Dec. 3rd --- Cleveland Browns 34 at Miami 0
- Mon. Dec. 9th --- New York Yankees 31 at Miami 0
- Fri. Dec. 13th --- Brooklyn Dodgers 20 at Miami 31
|-
| colspan="6" align="center" | Miami Seahawks
|-
| 1946
1946 Miami Seahawks season
The 1946 Miami Seahawks season was the inaugural one for the franchise and for the All-America Football Conference. Head coach Jack Meagher led the team to a 3–11 finish, four out of four teams in the Eastern Division....
|| 3 || 11 || 0 || 4th AAFC East || --
|}